From Coimbra to Macao
Pedro Martins was a Portuguese Jesuit and the first bishop actually to set foot in Japan.He was born at Coimbra.Earlier in life he survived the wreck of the São Tiago, in which four of the six Jesuits on board died.A letter of his dated December 9, 1586, about a notable shipwreck was printed at Milan in 1588.
He reached India on September 27, 1586, and later became superior of the Jesuit house at Goa and Provincial of India.The pope named him bishop of Japan, with Fr Luís de Cerqueira as his coadjutor and successor.Three men had been named bishop before him, and none had reached the country.He was consecrated at Goa.
His title was bishop of Funai (府内), but the king ordered him to live in Macao until the persecution in Japan calmed.There he served as acting prelate while Bishop Leonardo de Sá was a captive in Sumatra, and he issued permits for the purchase of slaves.In a letter of January 4, 1596, he reported five or six thousand new Christians in Japan that year, while Hideyoshi (秀吉), the Taiko, was thought to be turning a blind eye.
Landing at Nagasaki
On July 22, 1596, the bishop sailed from Macao as ambassador of the Viceroy of India, Matias de Albuquerque, which was the only way he could enter Japan under the ban.His ship, the carrack of Captain-Major Rui Mendes de Figueiredo, anchored off Nagasaki (長崎) on August 13, 1596, and he was brought ashore the next day with crosses, banners and copes.The landing was planned so "that the bishop should enter Japan on the eve of the Assumption, the same day Fr Xavier entered" (translated).Though he had arrived seriously ill, he was led in procession under a canopy to the church, where thanks were sung.Konishi Yukinaga (小西行長) visited him and sent 200 bales of rice and as many of wheat.
His humility impressed the mission.He told the vice-provincial, Fr Pedro Gomez, that he had been his disciple at the start of his studies, and asked to be guided by him, since he knew neither the language nor the people.
At the Jesuit seminary in Nagasaki, singing children tried to touch his hands and clothes.In his first two months he confirmed about four thousand Christians, among them the daimyo of Arima (有馬).He gave the tonsure to six Japanese Jesuits and twenty-five dojuku, and ordained five European Jesuit brothers as subdeacons.So many people flocked to him that care was needed lest the Taiko grow jealous.Writing to the Jesuit General, he warned that the Society was burdened beyond its strength and asked for steady reinforcements.
Rules for a Christian port
Martins issued the first formal condemnation in the Japan mission of Portuguese merchants buying Japanese slaves.His decree forbade anyone to buy Japanese or Korean boys or girls, or take them out of the country, without his express licence.Offenders faced major excommunication, a fine of ten cruzados for each person bought, and the loss of the persons.The original document has not been found.
On October 23, 1596, he wrote to the king that the captains of the Great Ship, being merchants, did no justice on Portuguese who wounded and killed, and he asked that the bishop be given oversight of justice over them.
In 1596 he made São Paulo the first parish church of Nagasaki.At a consultation in March 1597 he asked for mercy toward working people: "His Lordship told the priests to free the poor and those who have masters from erroneous conscience" (translated).Priests were to excuse the poor and servants who had to work on Sundays and holy days because of poverty or their masters' demands.
The bishop's dealings with the Spanish Franciscans in the city were tense.On September 13, 1596, he excommunicated the Spanish friars active in Nagasaki, set a fine of 100 taels of silver for anyone bringing friars to Japan, and threatened to excommunicate anyone attending their Masses.The Jesuits even posted men at the door of the friars' church to keep Japanese away.Yet he wanted friars to help the overburdened mission under the bishop, though he told the king they should be Portuguese Franciscans, since the mission belonged to the East Indies.
At the Taiko's court
On October 29, 1596, the bishop left Nagasaki with Fr Francesco Pasio to visit Hideyoshi.He carried rich presents and the viceroy's answer to a question the Taiko had asked: whether the embassy brought earlier by Fr Alessandro Valignano had truly come from the viceroy.At Muro (室), a port on the Inland Sea, he met Konishi and, with Fr João Rodrigues interpreting, first learned of the Urado (浦戸) affair, the crisis over the Spanish ship San Felipe.
In November 1596 Hideyoshi received him at Fushimi (伏見).The ruler was sharp at first, asking why the viceroy had been so slow to answer, but then grew friendly and served tea, with Rodrigues speaking for the bishop.The Taiko gave presents in return, a courtesy that proved useful in the troubles that soon followed.
In the capital region the bishop gave Confirmation day and night to Christians preparing for persecution.One account says that "in such numbers did they flock from various and far-distant parts, that the good prelate could take no rest\".Fr Organtino later credited the zeal of the Christians of Kyoto (京都) in December 1596 to that Confirmation.While there, the bishop also offered to help the Spaniards of the San Felipe and showed much charity to the Franciscans.
Word of the crowds reached Yakuin, who misrepresented them at court and made them a ground for accusation.The bishop hastened away and embarked at Sakai (堺) on December 7, 1596.Contrary winds held his ship until the next day, when the decree of persecution was published.
The martyrdom of February 5, 1597
On February 5, 1597, twenty-six Christians, six Franciscans and twenty Japanese, were crucified on a hill at Nagasaki while the bishop was in the town.He begged to attend, but Hanzaburo (半三郎) refused, saying the presence of so great a personage would enrage Hideyoshi.Kept in the Jesuit house, about an arquebus shot away, he watched from a window and later wrote that he saw them raised on their crosses and the gleam of the spear-heads.He sent his episcopal blessing by a messenger, and the Franciscan commissary, Fr Pedro Bautista, thanked him and asked his pardon.
Two or three hours after the deaths, he climbed the hill and knelt before the crosses.At the cross of the commissary he said, "Blessed Peter, pray for me" (translated).This has been called the first act of public veneration paid to the martyrs.That night he led a silent pilgrimage from cross to cross, followed by missionaries, the lords of Ōmura (大村) and Arima, Christian soldiers bound for Korea and local peasants.
To avoid reprisals, he forbade under pain of excommunication any violence to the guards or theft of the bodies.He later preached the martyrs' praises in the Jesuit church and drew up an official inquiry for the Pope and the King of Spain.
Departure and death at sea
Martins left Japan in March 1597, on the same ship that had brought him.Hanzaburo, fearing the anger of the Taiko, would not let him stay longer.His stay had lasted well under a year and had been dominated by the San Felipe affair and the martyrdom.
At Macao he met Fr Valignano, his own coadjutor, and Bishop Leonardo de Sá, whom he buried in September 1597.It was agreed that Luís de Cerqueira should go to Japan and that Martins should go to Goa to seek the viceroy's help for his flock.He died at sea in February 1598 on the voyage to India.His body was buried with honour in the Jesuit church at Malacca on February 18, 1598.Of the first four bishops named for Japan, he was the only one to reach it.
What is uncertain
Where the sources disagree
- Arrival date. Profillet, Cary and Boero give August 13, 1596, and Charlevoix (1828) also gives August 13; Bartoli, Delplace, Ehalt and Sousa give August 14; Solier and Cooper say the ship anchored on the 13th and he landed on the 14th.
- Appointment and consecration. Ehalt and Sousa say he was named in 1592, Solier 1591, and Fujita 1588 under Sixtus V, while Boero says Clement VIII chose him; his consecration at Goa is dated 1595 by Profillet, 1592 by Cooper and 1585 by Charlevoix (1828), which does not fit his arrival in India in 1586.
- Arrival in Macao. Ehalt says August 1593, Delplace January 1594, Cooper August 1594.
- Birth year. Hesselink gives 1535, Morris 1542.
- Early life. Cooper says he was captured with King Sebastian at Alcazarquivir in August 1578 and ransomed by Philip II; Cooper dates the wreck of the Santiago to 1583, the 1590 colloquium of Sande to 1585.
- His predecessors. Charlevoix says the three bishops named before him died on the way; Cary says the first declined to leave Africa and the next two died on the way; Ribadeneira calls him the second of three bishops for Japan elected at one time.
- Companions on arrival. Delplace says seven missionaries, Anesaki six companions, Solier five Jesuits and an old priest; Caddell says he came with his coadjutor, but Cerqueira arrived only in 1598.
- The great earthquake. Fr Rui Barreto dates it to September 3, 1596, a 1596 news-sheet to December 1, 1596; the same news-sheet reports over 8,000 new Christians on his two stays in Nagasaki.
- The slave-trade excommunication. Cabezas, Kataoka and Sousa place it in 1596, after his landing, but Ehalt argues from Cerqueira's letter of October 24, 1598 and the 1598 minutes that he left it on sailing for Goa, that it was published in Japan only in 1598, and that it lapsed days later when news of his death arrived.
- The audience with Hideyoshi. Solier puts his arrival in Kyoto on November 16 before Fushimi, while Cooper dates the Fushimi audience to mid-November, probably the 16th; Rodrigues later wrote that Hideyoshi gave him leave to stay, Martins wrote a year later that he was told to return to Macao, and Screech (cited by Morris) reports his claim that Hideyoshi apologised for his decrees in person; Charlevoix (Tours edition) says he was sent back to Macao in 1597 to appease Hideyoshi.
- Leaving the capital region. Yuuki and Profillet give December 7, 1596, Solier December 9; Cooper says he left for Osaka on December 7.
- Attitude to the friars. Ribadeneira says he often showed he wanted the friars to go back to Manila, and Cooper quotes him declaring that Japan belonged to the Portuguese crown, while Delplace stresses his charity to them; Delplace adds that he was not regretted, being judged weak and too condescending to the friars.
- A slight to a Councillor. Cary repeats stories told to Kaempfer that the bishop refused to stop his chair for a Councillor of State, who then complained to Hideyoshi; Steichen doubts the story, while Cary thinks it plausible.
- Length of stay. Delplace and Bartoli say seven months, Ehalt and Ribadeneira about eight, Roggendorf half a year.
- Departure from Japan. Bartoli says the ship of March 25, 1597; Cooper says he sailed on March 21 with four deported Franciscans.
- Time in Macao. Ehalt says the decision to send him to Goa came in December 1597, Cooper says November 7; Solier and Profillet say he left Macao at the end of spring 1597, but Pagès says February 1598, and his sworn testimony is dated Macao, November 26, 1597.
- Death. Solier, Charlevoix, Profillet and Cooper say he died of fever at sea about forty leagues from Malacca; Ehalt says he died in a shipwreck near the Straits of Singapore on February 9, 1598; Roggendorf says he died at Malacca; Fujita dates his death to 1597, and Anesaki gives his years as bishop as 1596 to 1605.
- The deacon Felipe. Medina rejects the idea that the bishop ordained the Franciscan Felipe a deacon, noting that no writer says so.